Stuart is the director of Pain Imaging at the University of Birmingham and a Reader in Psychology. He is currently funded by the Medical Research Council to investigate functional pain using neuroimaging combined with a novel analgesic technique called ‘offset analgesia’. He is Associate Editor of Pain and Psychosomatic Medicine. He has authored or co-authored papers on medicine, psychology and philosophy for the British Medical Journal, Bioethics, European Journal of Neuroscience, Pain, Psychosomatic Medicine, Neuroimage, Gastroenterology and psycCRITIQUES amongst others. Current research involves both theoretical and empirical research on the nature of pain and the possible causes of a rising incidence of pain or other somatic illness in the absence of identifiable pathology and in the context of improving health and longevity. Before arriving in Birmingham he was a member of research faculty at the Universities of Pittsburgh and California, Los Angeles.

Find out more on Stuart Derbyshire's academica.edu page

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• L1 Learning and Abnormal A
• L3 Pain

Research Group
Psychobiology, Social Cognition.

Research Interests
Pain, consciousness, hypnosis, moral reasoning, health behaviours, perceptual illusions.

Listen to Stuart's podcast 'Creating pain in the lab: research into chronic functional pain' (MP3 13.7MB) or read the podcast transcript.

Derbyshire SWG. Can fetuses feel pain? British Medical Journal 2006; 332: 909-912.

Derbyshire SWG, Burgess A. Use of mobile phones in hospitals. British Medical Journal 2006; 333: 767-8.

Derbyshire SWG. A Reactive Social Science Is Not Possible, So Can Social Neuroscience Succeed? [Review of the book Social Neuroscience: People Thinking About Thinking People]. PsycCRITIQUES – Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books 2006; 51(37): Article 5. Retrieved September 15, 2006, from the PsycCRITIQUES database.]. 2006; 51(37): Article 5. Retrieved September 15, 2006, from the database.

Derbyshire SWG, Whalley MG. Trautmann’s neck injury was painful after all. Pain 2006; 124: 234.

Derbyshire SWG. The Return of Introspection. [Review of the book Exploring Inner Experience]. PsycCRITIQUES – Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books 2006; 51(50): Article 12. Retrieved December 18, 2006, from the PsycCRITIQUES database.]. 2006; 51(50): Article 12. Retrieved December 18, 2006, from the database.

Gianaros PJ, Jennings JR, Sheu LK, Derbyshire SWG, Mathews KA. Heightened functional neural activation to psychological stress covaries with exaggerated blood pressure reactivity. Hypertension 2007; 49: 1-7.

Hylands-White N, Derbyshire SWG. Modifying pain perception: is it better to be hypnotisable or feel that you are hypnotised? Contemporary Hypnosis 2007; 24: 143-153.

Derbyshire SWG, Osborn J. Modelling pain circuits: How imaging may modify perception. Neuroimaging Clinics 2007; 17: 485-493.

Derbyshire SWG. Imaging Visceral Pain. Current Pain and Headache Reports 2007; 11: 178-182.

Nofzinger EA, Derbyshire SWG. Pain imaging in relation to sleep. In Sleep and Pain. G. Lavigne, BJ Sessle, M Choiniere, PJ Soja (eds), IASP Press, 2007; 153-173.

Derbyshire SWG. The Trouble with Medical Journals [Review]. British Medical Journal 2007; 334: 45.

Derbyshire SWG. Does the Body Hold a Key to the Cartesian Prison? [Review of the book Human Body Perception From The Inside Out]. PsycCRITIQUES – Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books 2007; 52(16): Article 8. Retrieved July 13, 2007, from the PsycCRITIQUES database.]. 2007; 52(16): Article 8. Retrieved July 13, 2007, from the database.

Derbyshire SWG. Blaming the Brain. [Review of the book Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates our Mental World.]. PsycCRITIQUES – Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books 2007; 52(47): Article 3. Retrieved November 15, 2007, from the PsycCRITIQUES database.]. 2007; 52(47): Article 3. Retrieved November 15, 2007, from the database.

Derbyshire SWG. The US Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act: a blow for women’s autonomy and clinical judgement. Abortion Review 2007;22:6-7.

Derbyshire SWG, Bagshaw AP. Combined EEG-functional magnetic resonance imaging measurements. Hospital Imaging & Radiology Europe 2007;2:20-21.

Kirwilliam SS, Derbyshire SWG. Increased bias to report heat or pain following emotional priming of pain-related fear. Pain 2008; 137: 60-65.

Derbyshire SWG, Fetal pain: Do we know enough to do the right thing? Reproductive Health Matters 2008; 16(S31): 117-126.

Derbyshire SWG, Osborn J. Enhancement of offset analgesia during sequential testing. European Journal of Pain 2008; 12: 980-989.

Eisenberg DP, Prosser JM, Steinfeld M, Cruciani RA, Cohen LJ, DerbyshireS, Galynker II. Abnormal heat and pain perception in remitted heroin dependence months after detoxification from methadone-maintenance. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2008; 95: 237-244.

Derbyshire SWG. The ethical dilemma of ethical committees. Sociology Compass 2008; 2: 10.

Derbyshire SWG. The Tyranny of Public Health. [Review of the book Marketing Public Health: Strategies to Promote Social Change.]. PsycCRITIQUES – Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books 2008; 53(12): Article 3. Retrieved March 19, 2008, from the PsycCRITIQUES database.  ]. 2008; 53(12): Article 3. Retrieved March 19, 2008, from the database. 

Derbyshire SWG. Intuition and Knowledge in Decision Making. [Review of the book Intuition in Judgement and Decision Making.]. PsycCRITIQUES – Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books 2008; 53(23): Article 1. Retrieved June 13, 2008, from the PsycCRITIQUES database.]. 2008; 53(23): Article 1. Retrieved June 13, 2008, from the database.

Derbyshire SWG. Why can’t you just go to sleep? [Review of the book Insomniac]. PsycCRITIQUES – Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books 2008;53(52): Article 7. Retrieved January 7, 2009, from the PsycCRITIQUES database.

Lane RD, Waldstein SR, Critchley H, Derbyshire SWG, Drossman DA, Wager T, Schneiderman N, Chesney MA, Jennings JR, Lovallo WR, Rose RM, Thayer JF, Cameron OG. The Rebirth of Neuroscience in Psychosomatic Medicine, Part II: Clinical Applications and Implications for Research. Psychosomatic Medicine 2009; 71: 135-151.

Derbyshire SWG, Whalley MG, Oakley DA. Fibromyalgia pain and its modulation by hypnotic and non-hypnotic suggestion: An fMRI analysis. European Journal of Pain 2009; 13: 542-550.

Warbrick T, Derbyshire SWG, Bagshaw AP. Stimulation and data analysis methods for measuring contact heat evoked potentials. Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology 2009; 26: 117-122.

Hollin GJS, Derbyshire SWG. Cold pressor pain reduces phobic fear but fear does not reduce pain. The Journal of Pain 2009; 10: 1058-1064.

Derbyshire SWG, Osborn J. Offset analgesia is mediated by activation in the region of the periaqueductal grey and rostral ventromedial medulla. NeuroImage 2009; 47: 1002-1006.

Derbyshire SWG. Unorthodox theories of autism are wrong and inhuman [Review of the book Defeating autism: A Dangerous Delusion]. PsycCRITIQUES – Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books 2009;54(24): Article 1. Retrieved June 17, 2009, from the PsycCRITIQUES database.

Osborn J, Derbyshire SWG. Pain sensation evoked by observing injury in others. Pain 2010; 148: 268-274.

Derbyshire SWG, Cameron AD, Lloyd DM, McCabe CS. A motor version of the rubber arm illusion: Does it hurt when it moves ‘wrong’? The BackCare Journal 2010; Autumn: 24-29.

Derbyshire SWG, Fitzgerald M. The painful consequences of neonatal nociceptive input. Pain 2010; 150: 220-221.

Derbyshire SWG. Foetal pain? Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2010; 24: 647–655.

Mogil JS, Davis KD, Derbyshire SWG. The necessity of animal models in pain research. Pain 2010; 151: 12-17.

Kirsch I, Cardeña E, Derbyshire S, Dienes Z, Heap M, Kallio S, Mazzoni G, Naish P, Oakley D, Potter C, Walters V, Whalley M. Definitions of Hypnosis and Hypnotizability and their Relation to Suggestion and Suggestibility: A Consensus Statement. Contemporary Hypnosis 2011; in press.

Derbyshire SWG. An Uncritical Approach to Behavioral Medicine [Review of the book Behavior & Medicine, 5th Edition]. PsycCRITIQUES – Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books 2011; in press.

Sullivan MD, Cahana A, Derbyshire SWG, Loeser JD. Imaging cannot make chronic pain a disease: A reply to Tracey and Bushnell. Journal of Pain 2011; in press.

Derbyshire SWG, Raja A. On the development of painful experience. Journal of Consciousness Studies 2011; in press.

Stuart's work focuses on the use of MRI at the University's imaging centre. He has a number of experimental models designed to demonstrate the effects of pain

Stuart is a experienced media commentator on a range of topical issues including fetal pain (he was a featured guest on a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation on abortion), hypnosis, fibromyalgia and our experiences of pain.

Stuart is also a regular commentator on general neuroscience issues including recent pieces on parenting and the infant brain (Guardian and Nurseryworld).